“One of the surest signs of the Philistine is his reverence for the superior tastes of those who put him down.” – Pauline Kael

Month: June 2011

I’m going to struggle against my better judgement and not make this a tirade. However the fact Kill Bill is two films is fucked up, but not quite as fucked up as the fact it took Tarantino six years to create this horrifically paced, shredded in the edit, horror show of referential pop culture. That asideKill Bill: Vol. 2isn’t an abortion it’s just I don’t want to see an ode of love that forgets it is also a piece of cinema. Admittedly I think there are people who probably love Uma doing her thing. Nevertheless, the MO of this flick here is no different from Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs, yet it falls short of the mark Tarantino set himself with these by, well, a whole lot further than the distance involved in a one inch punch. Oh man, and I didn’t even get into the foot fetish thing! Sigh… Quentin I still love you.

Michael Sheen is undoubtedly one of the finest character actors working today andThe Damned United, a tale of the ‘interesting’ Brian Clough is as good a vehicle for his talents as his previous work portraying Blair and Frost. This is essentially a study of an individual over a bizarre period of 44 days, what it does so magnificently is bring to life the era in question, while holding the microscope tightly over Sheen’s centrepiece performance. Let’s face it, there isn’t enough cinematic fare in the way of 70s football, so this a rare and splendid treat.